Dr Katherine Bennell-Pegg

And you only take risks where you need to take risks.

I worked for Airbus.

So like Boeing develops aircraft in another part of the business, so that safety culture comes across from designing aircraft.

But when we design satellites, we should be not over-perfecting and gold-plating everything because we want to be low-cost there as far as we can when we're looking at things like weather and disasters and communications so that we make it as economical as possible.

It's a great positive thing.

It's a wonderful motivator.

But the reality is most of an astronaut's career is spent here on the ground.

I've only been a qualified astronaut for two years since April 2024, which is when I graduated.

So it's relatively early days.

You know, being a qualified astronaut from a country without a human spaceflight program is unusual.

So it's just another layer on the uncertainty onion.

And the way I handle that uncertainty is by knowing that I can contribute from what I've learned so far as well as continue to learn into the future.

So I've been able to get out and about across the country through the Australian Space Agency to speak to people, especially young people, about opportunities in space and technical careers and open doors also for

for our researchers and companies to be more involved in space opportunities and to support with what the space agency is doing for Artemis as well.

I think for most people that have become astronauts or people that have big dreams for themselves, for their careers, the easiest way to manage it, I think, is to make it not about what you want to be like yourself, but what you want to contribute.

So be purpose-driven and that helps to remove barriers

your ego from it it helps you to stop being narcissistic but also to stop worrying if you're good enough and just focus on getting the job done the best you can and also knowing that you're not alone in space you're part of a crew um not just up there but of hundreds of people on the ground supporting you and here on earth you know space is part it's not a bubble it's part of a broader ecosystem that underpins all our utilities here in australia

Yeah, so there's a number of reasons why you do it.

The real focus for Artemis, which is the new Apollo, is about going back to the moon, not to plant a flag and have footprints to be the first, but

to go back there to set up a long-term presence, what's called a sustainable presence, in order to do long-term science and also to have a presence in the same way, you know, as a nation, as countries we do in Antarctica, to ensure all nations are using it responsibly.